Growing up in the mountains of West Virginia, with its strong American Indian background and influence, we as children would yell Geronimo!! when we were running fast and furiously for any reason. It was an exclamation of power and certain victory. The story of Geronimo is a sad one:

Geronimo!!!
A fearless warrior,
it would seem that
he had no concern for
his enemy. Yet it was
not always so.
His mother taught him to
kneel in prayer and to see
the One God everywhere.
He grew to be a man,
he married a sweet girl
from his clan, and children
came to them.
The English came,
and who knows why,
but they killed his wife and babes,
it was then he vowed
that he would kill as many
as he could in raids.
It's sad that this was his response,
yet, who can not understand
the sorrow which he endured
at the fist, of his enemy's hand?
I wonder how God viewed him?
I would think it's true, and hope,
that he did repent to the God he knew.
Written below are things he spoke
that give to us a clue that God may have
to his prison come, and made his heart
renewed, and healed him of his consuming
hurt, that had turned into hate too.

"There is one God looking down on us all." Geronimo!!

"We are all children of One God. The sun, darkness, and wind are all listeners to what we say." Geronimo!!

"I cannot think that we are useless, or God would never have created us." Geronimo!!!

Ramona 10/25/09

Ramona, Master in Ministry Arts, BA in Biblical Studies, I am an Ordained Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.